Tuesday, October 29, 2013

At the risk of sounding like an old fart (I have no problem sounding like an idiot, because, as we all know, I am one of those, but I'm not such an old fart), I wish agencies would recognize that not everybody they need to be targeting is 20-something.

Seems like no matter what the product is, the concept, people in the commercial and humor, if there is any, is targeted pretty specifically at people Who Are Not Me. Which, in a way, tells me they don't want my business.

I believe in targeted marketing. I do. I believe that campaigns for Red Bull or Lite beer ought to be targeted to the demographic that drinks Red Bull and Lite beer.

But not everybody is in that generation. It just seems that the creative teams who do the work either are in that demographic or can't see past it. Or - and this is probably a big factor too - it's the old "let's do something really cool so we can win an award" factor at work. "Let's have a camel wandering through an office . . . "

Baby Boomers - make fun of them (us) mock our reluctance to act our ages, do what you want. But don't ignore the fact that more half the nation's wealth and more than $2.3 trillion in buying power is wrapped up in people born between 1946 and 1964. That's a lot.

Baby boomers dominate 1,023 out of 1,083 consumer packaged goods categories, watch 9-10 hours of video a day, comprise 1/3 of all TV viewers, online users, social media users, and Twitter users and are most likely to have broadband Internet access at home.

So think about who's going to buy that beer, use that credit card, test-drive that car or buy that insurance. Think about whether or not we're really going to respond to the same appeal as a 26 year-old will. Maybe one size doesn't actually fit all. Think about it.

And while you're thinking about it, get off my lawn.

Posted by
Woody Hinkle

2 comments:

Like Woody and Karen. I believe in targeted marketing, and as a former copywriter I really believe in market research before launching any ad campaign. And speaking of beers, my favorite story about the value of market research involves two beers that were sold heavily in upstate New York — Schaefer beer and Rheingold beer.

The ad agency that had the Schaefer account did the market research and discovered (in hindsight, hardly a surprise central and upstate New York) that about 70 percent of the beer imbibed in their service territory was imbibed by about 15 – 20 percent of the beer drinkers — blue collar workers, truck drivers, bowling leagues, etc — so they targeted their campaign to those folks, ending their commercials with the tag line, “Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one.”

Their market share expanded substantially.

The agency handling Rheingold, by contrast, either didn’t do market research, or did a bad job of it, or ignored common sense. Their campaign, which cost a lot of money, was a series of lavishly produced television commercials showing various ethnic groups in various celebratory events drinking Rheingold beer. One commercial showed a Polish wedding with everybody dancing and having fun, and the voiceover was, “In New York City, where there are more Poles than in all of Warsaw, they all brink Rheingold beer.”

Another was a Jewish Bar Mitzvah — again, lots of dancing and revelry — and the voiceover was, “In New York City, where there are more Jews than in all of Tel Aviv, everyone drinks Rheingold beer.”

A third commercial was an Italian wedding — same dancing and revelry — and the voiceover was, “In New York City, where there are more Italians than in all of Rome, everyone drinks Rheingold beer.”

A fourth was a German beer party. Same thing.

Guess what? The Jews don’t want to be drinking the same beer as the Germans — and vice versa — who also don’t want to be drinking the same beer as the Poles, who don’t want to be drinking the same beer as the Italians, or the Germans, and vice versa.

Market share went down the toilet, but as I recall they won a lot of awards for the quality and creativity of the campaign.

Like Woody and Karen. I believe in targeted marketing, and as a former copywriter I really believe in market research before launching any ad campaign. And speaking of beers, my favorite story about the value of market research involves two beers that were sold heavily in upstate New York — Schaefer beer and Rheingold beer.

The ad agency that had the Schaefer account did the market research and discovered (in hindsight, hardly a surprise central and upstate New York) that about 70 percent of the beer imbibed in their service territory was imbibed by about 15 – 20 percent of the beer drinkers — blue collar workers, truck drivers, bowling leagues, etc — so they targeted their campaign to those folks, ending their commercials with the tag line, “Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one.”

Their market share expanded substantially.

The agency handling Rheingold, by contrast, either didn’t do market research, or did a bad job of it, or ignored common sense. Their campaign, which cost a lot of money, was a series of lavishly produced television commercials showing various ethnic groups in various celebratory events drinking Rheingold beer. One commercial showed a Polish wedding with everybody dancing and having fun, and the voiceover was, “In New York City, where there are more Poles than in all of Warsaw, they all brink Rheingold beer.”

Another was a Jewish Bar Mitzvah — again, lots of dancing and revelry — and the voiceover was, “In New York City, where there are more Jews than in all of Tel Aviv, everyone drinks Rheingold beer.”

A third commercial was an Italian wedding — same dancing and revelry — and the voiceover was, “In New York City, where there are more Italians than in all of Rome, everyone drinks Rheingold beer.”

A fourth was a German beer party. Same thing.

Guess what? The Jews don’t want to be drinking the same beer as the Germans — and vice versa — who also don’t want to be drinking the same beer as the Poles, who don’t want to be drinking the same beer as the Italians, or the Germans, and vice versa.

Market share went down the toilet, but as I recall they won a lot of awards for the quality and creativity of the campaign.